Iran said on Wednesday daily natural gas output from the giant South Pars Gas field has reached 240 million cubic metres (mcm), the official IRNA news agency reported.

Hossein Nosratzadeh, a spokesman for the state Pars Oil and Gas Co., said the production had hit the expected target but did not give a comparative figure.

"Also the weekly production of nine phases of the South Pars Gas field has reached 1.68 billion cubic metres which is also above the expected target," Nosratzadeh said.

The South Pars Gas field is shared with Qatar that makes up the world's largest pure gas reserve. The Iranian part is divided into 24 phases.

 Iran has the world's second largest gas reserves, almost 16 percent of the world's total, but currently has no major net exports, partly because international sanctions have deterred investment by Western firms with expertise and technology.